Limestone in the chicken house?

[Grace Boyer]

I don't know if this is the right section or not, because this isn't about coop design or construction, but is it safe to put lime under the hay in my chicken house? They would probably scratch the hay away in some places. It gets a little bit wet under the hay, and to keep the smell down, it would be nice to dry it up a little, if it wouldn't hurt them.

 

[blossom hen]

I am using Sweet PDZ in mine. It is marketed for use in horse stalls, but works wonderfully well for the chicken house. I give a quick raking of the wood shavings each AM after the chickens go out into the run and then do a light dusting of PDZ and it keeps down the odor, rarely have any flies and it keeps everything dry. Just got some food grade DE to start using as well. Had to order DE online. A local feed store stocks PDZ. Hope you can find one of them to try!

 

[Grace Boyer]

Thanks Blossom Hen.I'll have to look for that next time I'm at the hardware store.
Are you originally from Hawaii?

 

[Half-a-dozen]

Does anyone know if that is like the powdered lime you can use on lawns?

 

[Teresa La]

My grandfather told me just yesterday that they used to throw down lime in the run area and the coop because chicken poop stinks when it gets wet.

I'm sure that you can use it in the coop if they used in their run area. I know that there are now more natural methods such as the PDZ and DE now, but I am assuming that before those were around people had to use lime.

Teresa

 

[Grace Boyer]

Teresa La,
Do you have any idea if it was powdered lime, or would pelletized work, too? I've used powdered, but I think all I have right now is pelletized.

 

[Teresa La]

He told me powder or pelletized is fine but make sure that it's not quick lime. It has an acid in it that would kill the chicks. He said that the regular lime can be put in the compost so I don't know if it would be the lime that they put in yards. Hope this helps.

Teresa

 

[polychickens]

FYI, Tractor supply is running a promo on sweet PDZ Horse stall refresher. 25 pounds for $8.98 plus a $2.00 mail in rebate. They have some handy brochures touting the merits over lime. Just bought some today.
Polychickens